Fabric Yoyos: Tutorial

Fabric Yoyos are simple to make.  You can go to your local fabric or craft store and find a tool that will help you make all kinds of size or shape yoyos.  Or you can make them the old fashion way with just a circle of fabric.  If you are sewing the yoyos together for a quilt or table mat, you might want to make all the yoyos the same finished size.

To determine the size of circle to start out with, you need to know the finished size you want then to be and cut a circle 2 times plus 1/2” (for seam allowance) of that finished size.  For example, if you want a yoyo 1 1/2” in diameter, cut a piece of fabric 3 ½” in diameter.    

        

Now fold over the edge (about a ¼” ) of the circle to the wrong side of the fabric and start a running stitch like a basting stitch around the circle. I hide the knot of my thread under the fold of the edge.  (I usually use the same colored thread as the fabric but I am using a contrasting thread here so you can see the stitches.) You can iron the edge down before you start sewing or just fold it over before you take the next stitch. 

I double my thread to make it stronger to pull the gathers.  But if a single thread works for you, go for it.  

One tip I learned is to make the stitches not tiny like quilting stitches but bigger stitches. Mine are usually about ¼”.   When the yoyo is finished, there will be a hole where the stitches are gathered. The bigger the stitches, the tinier the hole.  

You can gather the stitches as you are sewing or wait until you get to where you started stitching.   .  

Then gather up the circle and knot it. I try to get the knot as close to the gathers as I can, then pull the thread through the gathers before I cut it off.  You don’t have the tail of the knot showing in the opening that way

You will probably need to flatten the finished yo-yo out after you have cut the thread. You might have to adjust where the edge fold goes to get the hole in the middle.

And that is your yoyo. Now just make however many more you need for your project.

To sew the individual yoyos together, arrange them in the way you want them.   You can have them so all the gather holes show or have them so that the flat side shows.  Usually I want to see the gathered holes.  I think it is more interesting and more textured.

But occasionally when I am doing an ornament where it might swing around on the hanger, I will alternate the yoyos: one gathered next to one that shows the flat side.  It makes it more symmetrical.

Now to sew the yoyos together: Pick up two yoyos.  If you have all the yoyos facing with the gathered side up, you want to place the flat sides together.  If the yoyos have the flat side up, you want to put two gathered sides together.   If you are alternating a gathered side with a flat side, the yoyos you place together should be a gathered against a flat side.

Now slip your needle through the hole and under the gathers coming out at the edge of the yoyo.

Pull the needle through so the knot is hidden in the gathers.  Pulling the needle through the second yoyo, take a little stitch securing them together (Note: I usually use the same colored thread as my fabric. I am using contrasting thread here so you can see the stitch.)

                                                          

                                                              

Take a couple more little stitches to secure the yoyos together.  Make a knot and slip the needle through the gathers of the yoyo (like you did when you created the yoyo) and clip your thread.  That is all there is to it.  Now just repeat the stitches for all the other yoyos until you are finished with your project..

Here is my completed ornament.

©2016  Cheryl Fillion